4th of February 2005 - Roof Danger

7 Spey Terrace
Edinburgh
EH7 4PX

Telephone: 0131-550 0895
E-mail: JohnEDouglas@hotmail.com

4th of February 2005

FOR PUBLICATION:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR


Dear Sir,

Edinburgh Councillors have indeed opened Pandora's Box on the issue of satellite dishes (EN 3rd Feb). Like terrestrial TV aerials or, for that matter, the council's own massive kerbside dustbins, we have to realise that they are here to stay (unsightly as they may be).

If the council really intends to alienate many TV watching voters by trying to enforce outmoded planning regulations, it will be impossible for them to avoid discriminating against ethnic minorities who rely on satellite in order to receive appropriate programming which is not available on cable. And smaller ethnic minorities often require larger dishes than normal as their programmes are not transmitted on the Astra satellites used by Sky.

If the council actually wants to do something useful on our roofs, they should be seeking the removal of all the redundant Band I/III aerials which are so precariously poised above our city. The 405 line transmissions which required these massive aerials ceased on 3rd January 1985. Since then, these large lumps of metal (many of them now nearly 50 years old) have been rotting away unobserved and, as time goes by, are increasingly a danger to people below.

Every time there is a strong wind, I see more bits in the street and somebody is going to get injured or killed if something isn't done.

Sincerely,


John Eoin Douglas